


Love, Fear, and Other Emotions

by AngelicBubblesLlama



Category: Kaeloo (Cartoon)
Genre: A few episodes are referenced in this fic, But that's just canon tbh, Eugly grows a spine, Eugly needs more love, Evil Pretty, F/M, Heavily features Eugly, Mr. Cat uses French nicknames, Post-Season/Series 04, Some French words sprinkled in here and there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:23:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28817031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelicBubblesLlama/pseuds/AngelicBubblesLlama
Summary: Kaeloo and Mr. Cat are as different as day and night. She's into gardening. He's into chainsaws. She likes pretend games and fiction. He likes history books and newspapers. She's into sappy romance stories and he's into horror and violence. That last one doesn't go unnoticed by their friends.
Relationships: Kaeloo/Mr. Cat, Mentioned Olaf/Olga, Mentioned Stumpy/Ursula, Minor Quack Quack/Eugly
Comments: 5
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

“Dude, this is supposed to be the best horror movie in the last twenty years! You’ve gotta come with us to the theater!” Stumpy pleaded.

“Quack.” Quack Quack refused. Eugly, unlike her sister, despised horror movies, and she didn’t want to come with the others on their trip to the movie theater. Quack Quack didn’t want to leave his girlfriend alone during an activity that everyone was participating in.

Eugly mumbled something and used her hands to sign that she would be okay if Quack Quack went without her. Kaeloo had given her a bookstore gift card as a present for the twins’ birthday a few weeks ago, knowing that it was one of the few things Pretty wouldn’t take from her, and Eugly had recently bought some new romance novels that she could pass the time reading while the others were gone.

“Hello, buddies!” Kaeloo announced her presence as she rode a kick-scooter onto the scene, startling everyone. “What are you doing?”

“I -” Stumpy began.

“Casse-noisette is taking us to a horror movie,” Mr. Cat said, pushing Stumpy aside to take his place next to Kaeloo.

“Hey!” Stumpy was annoyed at being ignored, but this went unnoticed by Kaeloo and Mr. Cat, who had the unfortunate tendency to ignore other people when they were around each other.

“I don’t understand the appeal of horror movies. They’re so… scary, and they can be violent too!” Kaeloo shuddered.

“Well, Eugly’s not going either! She’s staying home to read sappy romance novels for girls!” Stumpy informed her with a tinge of disgust. An idea occurred to him. “Why don’t you spend the day reading with Eugly? You like gross mushy love stories too!”

“Love stories aren’t gross and mushy! They’re romantic!” Kaeloo huffed. Then, like someone had flipped a switch, she suddenly smiled. “Anyway, that does seem like a good idea!”

“Now that Eugly won’t be alone, you can come with us to the movie theater, pal!” Stumpy grinned.

Quack Quack looked at Eugly, his eyes still unsure, but she nodded at him approvingly. She didn’t want her boyfriend to miss out on a fun opportunity because of her.

“Then it’s settled! Kaeloo and Eugly will stay home and read books, and me, Quack Quack, Mr. Cat, and Mademoiselle Moche - ow! - will go to the theater to watch the movie,” Stumpy announced, rubbing his arm where Pretty had punched him for calling her “Mademoiselle Moche”.

====

Eugly closed her second romance novel of the day with a satisfied sigh and placed it back onto her bookshelf. She glanced over to see Kaeloo staring into space, the rather short book she’d picked up two hours ago propped up idly on her knees.

_ Is something wrong? _ Eugly signed to her, mumbling. Kaeloo shook, startled, and the book fell off her lap.

“N-no, of course not! I was just reading this book, you see?” Kaeloo picked up the book, opened it up to a random page, and stared at the page to give the impression that she was reading. “It’s so interesting!”

_ You’re reading it upside down, _ Eugly pointed out. She thought for a moment, and then added:  _ is something bothering you about your own love life? _

“Love life? What love life? I don’t have a love life! I’ve never been in love with anyone!” Kaeloo laughed nervously.

_ What about Mr. Cat? _

Kaeloo froze in place, and Eugly knew she’d hit the nail on the head. She knew that her sister was infatuated with Mr. Cat, but she couldn’t help but think that Mr. Cat was bound to end up with Kaeloo. Their relationship may have been a rather unusual one, but despite their constant bickering, anyone could see that they made each other happy, were willing to look past each other’s flaws, and most of all, loved each other dearly.

“I am not in love with Mr. Cat! Why does everyone think that?” she asked, a tell-tale blush engulfing her face.

_ It’s always been obvious, _ Eugly pointed out. She’d always wanted to point this out to Kaeloo, or even to Mr. Cat, but Pretty would probably murder her if she tried.  _ Why do you keep denying it? _

Kaeloo looked over at Eugly rather hesitantly. Sure, she was Pretty’s sister, but she was a very nice girl, and she seemed quiet enough to keep secrets… 

“The thing is… I don’t know if Mr. Cat likes me that way or not.”

Eugly could only stare in silence. She was far too polite to say anything along the lines of  _ JUST HOW DENSE ARE YOU?! _ Kaeloo mistook Eugly’s silence as the rabbit encouraging her to go on.

“I keep getting mixed signals from him! He tells me he loves me, but then he tells me it was all a joke!”

Eugly was beginning to realize that Kaeloo’s earlier statement did make some sense after all. Both Kaeloo and Mr. Cat were guilty of being rather vague about their feelings for each other.

_ Why don’t you try confessing to him and see what happens? There’s nothing to lose by telling him your true feelings! _ Eugly couldn’t outright tell Kaeloo that it was obvious that Mr. Cat was in love with her, but she knew for a fact that there was no way Mr. Cat could refuse a love confession from Kaeloo.

“But there is something to lose! If Mr. Cat doesn’t like me back, my confession could hurt our friendship! Things might get awkward between us,” Kaeloo said, hugging her knees to her chest. The book fell to the ground beside her. Eugly took a deep breath.

_ If you don’t want to tell him now, that’s fine. Why don’t you continue reading that book to take your mind off things? _

“I can’t!” Kaeloo explained. “The characters in this book remind me too much of me and Mr. Cat!”

_ Why don’t you try writing in a diary or something? That usually helps me when my feelings are too strong, _ Eugly suggested.

“That’s a great idea, Eugly!”

Kaeloo bounded out of the room and returned a few minutes later with her secret diary and a pencil.

====

At the movie theater, Quack Quack was curled up on the floor, Pretty was throwing up in the bathroom, Stumpy was staring off into space, apparently having been traumatized by what he’d seen, and Mr. Cat was… simply standing there, waiting for his friends (and Pretty) to regain their composure so they could go home.

“You know, Mr. Cat,” said Stumpy, apparently feeling better, “it’s really cool how you weren’t scared by that movie!”

“Yeah,” Pretty popped up behind him, freaking him out, “I love guys who don’t scare easily!”

Mr. Cat resisted the temptation to punch her in the face and simply backed away.

“Quack,” Quack Quack also expressed his admiration.

“Y-yeah, whatever,” said Mr. Cat, who was secretly flattered by all the compliments. “Let’s go home.”

They proceeded to the twins’ house to meet up with Kaeloo and Eugly.

“Hello, buddies, how was the movie?” Kaeloo asked.

“It was great! I wasn’t scared at all!” lied Stumpy.

“Quack,” Quack Quack said, truthfully admitting that he found it scary.

“What a bunch of losers,” Pretty scoffed hypocritically as if she hadn’t been terrified as well.

“Ehh, it wasn’t bad, but it could have been better,” shrugged Mr. Cat, who was actually referring to his experience watching the movie and not the movie itself. The movie had been interesting, and he’d loved the gory effects and the sheer psychological horror posed by the story, but every few seconds he’d been turning to the seat next to him to talk to Kaeloo, only to remember that she wasn’t there. He wouldn’t admit it publicly, but… he’d missed her, even though it had only been a few short hours. It felt weird participating in social events without her.

“Eugly and I had fun too! But I really missed you three,” she said, hugging Stumpy and Quack Quack with one arm and Mr. Cat with the other. She wasn’t used to being separated from all three of them at once for extended periods of time, unless it was night time and they were all sleeping.

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of Stumpy’s stomach rumbling.

“I’m starving!” he complained.

“I could go for a burger,” Mr. Cat added.

“Quack.” Quack Quack had been eating yogurt the whole time at the theater, having snuck it in with help from Mr. Cat because the outcome would have been far scarier than any horror movie if he didn’t have any. However, he still wanted more, and it was one of the items that was available at McDaube.

_ That does sound like a good idea, _ Eugly added.

“Alright, buddies! We’re going to McDaube! Would you like to come with us, Pretty?” Kaeloo asked, mainly out of politeness since nobody else would.

“Ew, no. I love fast food, but there’s no way I’m being seen in public with you losers. I already had some popcorn at the movie theater because I’m not a poor person who thinks the concessions stand is too expensive, unlike you guys,” she said haughtily, turning her nose up at the others.

“You could have just said no,” Kaeloo grumbled before returning to her usual cheerful smile. “Let’s go, everybody!”

Everyone except Pretty filed out of the door, leaving the pink rabbit alone inside the house. As it turned out, Pretty had a very good reason to stay home. The latest issue of  _ Boucherie _ magazine was out, and Pretty wanted to buy it, but unfortunately, she was broke. She could always borrow money from someone, but she’d have to pay it back… unless they didn’t know they’d lent her any. With this thought in mind, Pretty tiptoed into her sister’s room to search for the piggy bank where she put her life savings. Unfortunately, after the cupid’s arrow incident, Eugly had gotten better at hiding her money, so it would be hard to find. Maybe it was on top of her shelf? Pretty sauntered towards the shelf, but she tripped over an object that was lying on the floor.

“That beluga whale should really learn to organize her books better,” Pretty grumbled. When her eyes landed on the cover of the book she had tripped over, her eyes widened and she gasped.


	2. Chapter 2

Kaeloo tried her best to focus on her watering can and her flowers, ignoring the constant memories replaying in her mind of… the nightmare.

_ It was just a dream. _

_ That sort of thing would never happen in real life. _

That’s what she told herself every time she had this particular nightmare. She suppressed the thoughts of carnage, pain, fear, and sadness that this dream manufactured in her. Even though it was a recurring nightmare, the terror it produced in her never changed. It started out differently, but it always ended up the same way: her friends ended up badly hurt because of something she’d done. This time, after waking up from the nightmare, she’d slept next to Mr. Cat (who had been too tired to refuse), she’d been too distraught to make breakfast so they all had to have cereal instead, and she’d refused to participate in the game of the day, opting to tend to her garden instead.

Stumpy and Quack Quack had thought of a fun game to play on their own. Whatever the game was - Kaeloo didn’t recall them ever telling her what they were going to play - needed a lot of trees, so they’d gone to the forest. She’d had to hold back tears of joy when they told her that they were going out to play an actual game together instead of playing video games and eating snacks all day because “you were right, it’s more fun that way!” She was so proud of them for making the right choice, and admittedly, she was proud of herself for influencing them to make that choice.

_ What if they have more fun without you? _

Like most people, Kaeloo had a little voice in her head that liked to list off the negative possibilities of everything. On this particular occasion, she had an excellent rebuttal; she and her friends had had a ton of fun the previous day with a game of kickball… aside from a minor setback when she had transformed and kicked everyone else, of course.

_ And this time, they won’t have to deal with the “minor setbacks” either. _

Kaeloo’s frown deepened as she thought of…  _ her _ . The toad. One of the various ways in which “the nightmare” ended was if  _ she _ showed up and hurt everyone. Kaeloo winced a little when she thought about how even though she referred to Bad Kaeloo as though she was a separate person, she was still very much a part of her. On the bright side, the voice in her head was still wrong; her friends had always told her that they loved her for who she was, including the part about her transforming into a giant toad to beat her up.

Kaeloo shook her head. She’d been overthinking this for way too long, and her daisies risked being over-watered. She should probably go spend some time with someone else to take her mind off things. Mr. Cat was evidently the best choice. He was a strong proponent of the term “be yourself”, and Kaeloo found his presence rather comforting whenever she was upset. The last time Kaeloo had seen him was around an hour ago, when he was curled up on the sofa with a newspaper. She hoped he would still be there. Just as she was about to put away her gardening tools, she was jolted out of her thoughts by the sound of her phone ringing. Stumpy was calling. Kaeloo put the phone to her “ear”. A shriek rang out and she pulled away from the phone.

“Stumpy? What’s wrong?!” she asked, worry lacing her voice.

“Kaeloo! Come to the forest! We need you!”

Before Kaeloo could ask any more questions, the call ended. She transformed, dropped both her phone and the watering can, and ran as quickly as she could in the direction of the forest. From what she had heard, this sounded like an emergency situation. Bad Kaeloo didn’t know their exact location, but she could at least hope to find them if she looked through the forest. Fortunately, she could clear a lot of ground in her transformed state. Unfortunately, in her haste, Bad Kaeloo didn’t notice a rather large tree root sticking in the path, and her foot snagged on it, sending her crashing to the ground. The shock made her de-transform on the spot. Kaeloo tried to stand up, but her ankle had been twisted and the pain was unbearable. With a sinking heart, Kaeloo realized that was nothing more she could do at this point. She couldn’t walk, so there was no way of reaching them. Her phone was in the garden at home where she’d dropped it in her haste. She hadn’t told anybody else that she was leaving, so they wouldn’t come looking for her. Worst of all, Stumpy and Quack Quack were probably stuck in some kind of dangerous situation where she couldn’t help them. Even if she did manage to crawl through the forest without hurting her hands and knees, it would be far slower than walking, and it would probably be too late by the time she arrived on the scene. The only thing she could do was cry tears of pure frustration and despair.

… No.

There was no way she could give up now. These were her friends, her beloved, precious friends who had always been there for her when her family hadn’t, whom she’d shared happy memories, joy, and laughter with since childhood! She couldn’t just leave them like that. There had to be a way she could help. Determination firing up inside her, Kaeloo used her hands to drag herself along the ground, slowly but surely. She was not going to give up.

Suddenly, she heard movement nearby. Her body tensed up and she froze on the spot. Was it some kind of wild animal? Even if she transformed again, it wouldn’t heal her injuries, and she wouldn’t be able to fight much if she couldn’t even stand up. Whatever it was approached her and she curled in on herself, whimpering in fear.

“La grenouille?!”

“Mr. Cat?!”

Kaeloo looked up to see that the noises she had heard were indeed made by Mr. Cat. What was he doing here?

“Kaeloo? What happened to you?” he asked, kneeling down in front of her. A normal person wouldn’t think that Mr. Cat was worried, but Kaeloo was able to pick up on it thanks to little things like him using her real name and the tone of his voice, even though it was dark in the forest and she could barely see his face.

“Stumpy c-called me and asked me to come to the forest,” she said, hyperventilating. “I think he and Q-Quack Quack might be in danger! We have to save them!” she cried, grabbing Mr. Cat by the shoulders and shaking him vigorously.

“Le canard called me about that too. That’s why I’m here,” Mr. Cat explained. “Do you know what happened to them?” he asked, his voice tinged with worry.

“I don’t!” she wailed. “W-we have to find them!”

“Alright, let’s go! Fortunately, I planted a tracking device on le canard so I could check if he went anywhere near my hidden field of landmines so I could go watch as they exploded on him, so I know exactly where to find Stumpy and Quack Quack,” Mr. Cat explained.

“You wanted to know if he went near your WHAT?!”

“That’s not important now!”

He scooped her up into his arms in a bridal carry and began to run, carefully dodging stray rocks and tree branches. Kaeloo wrapped her arms around his shoulders to support herself. Even though things were looking up, Kaeloo couldn’t help feeling bad; she wasn’t able to do much to help her friends, and now she was just weighing Mr. Cat down by making him carry her around. Counterintuitively, her instinct was to lean her head into him. Being with him always made her feel better. Sensing her distress, Mr. Cat patted her arm a couple of times, though he didn’t say anything.

“We’re almost there,” he announced, showing her their location on his phone screen, one of the few sources of light in this dark part of the forest. Mr. Cat was fine, being a cat, but Kaeloo was unable to see much. Suddenly, the phone went dark, and the surroundings with it.

“Damn it, I must have forgotten to charge my phone!” he cursed.

Kaeloo felt like going off on him for being so irresponsible - a thing she tended to do when stressed - but she couldn’t very well do that after she’d just left her own phone at home. Besides, they were almost already there, from what the location tracker had shown. A loud, high-pitched scream came from the opposite direction.

“Stumpy!” cried Kaeloo and Mr. Cat in unison, rushing off to see what happened to their friend. Arriving on the scene a minute later, they spotted a lifeless form lying on the ground nearby. Mr. Cat froze in his tracks, his eyes wide in horror. Kaeloo tried to scream, but no sound came out. From what little could be seen, Stumpy looked like he’d been attacked by a wild animal. The bushes nearby began to rustle, a low growling sound coming from inside them. A large shadow became visible in the foliage. Mr. Cat lowered Kaeloo to the ground to free his arms and steadied the only weapon he’d brought along: a baseball bat. The large shadow suddenly jumped out of the bushes and leaped towards them, Kaeloo curled into herself in fetal position and heard a loud “THWACK”, and she assumed that Mr. Cat had swung the bat at full force, hitting the strange creature. It let out a cry of pain that sounded oddly familiar. Never in a million years did Kaeloo expect Mr. Cat to say what he said next.

“... Eu-Eugly?”

Wait, what?

Kaeloo’s eyes were getting adjusted to the dark, so she raised her head to see that the creature in front of her was indeed Eugly, dressed in all black and rubbing the side of her torso where she had been hit. Once the initial shock wore off, Mr. Cat’s face went red and morphed into the angriest, most terrifying expression Kaeloo had ever seen on him. He marched over to the bush and tugged at it, revealing Quack Quack, who was holding a portable speaker playing wild animal sounds. His suspicions confirmed, he ran over to Stumpy and kicked him in the face.

“Ow, what was that for?!” the squirrel cried indignantly.

“What the hell is going on?!” Mr. Cat snapped, a dangerous look in his eyes like he was ready to murder all three of them.

Quack Quack and Eugly tried to dissuade Stumpy from speaking, given his tendency to irritate people, but the latter either didn’t see them in the dark or didn’t understand their desperate hand signals.

“It was a prank,” Stumpy explained, smiling as if he didn’t understand. “We wanted to see how you’d react!”

“WHAT?!”

“It was supposed to be fun, dude! Chill out!”

“Chill out? CHILL OUT?! Does  _ this _ look fun to you?” he gestured towards Kaeloo’s quivering form. Quack Quack turned on the flashlight, illuminating Kaeloo, who had her hands on her “ears” and had shut her eyes tightly and was mumbling to herself. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, she was letting out all the pent-up stress this ordeal had given her. The others started to look guilty. Quack Quack tentatively tried to approach Kaeloo.

“NO!” she screamed, using her hands to scoot away from him.

“Do you need to talk to your therapist?” Mr. Cat asked, snatching Stumpy’s phone. His fingers hovered above the screen, ready to type in the phone number for the therapist’s office.

“N-no, I’m fine,” she stammered. “I’ll be fine…”

“Quack.” (It was all an illusion. The wild animal that was supposedly attacking people was actually Eugly, with the noises provided by my speaker. Stumpy covered himself in ketchup to make it look like he’d been attacked. We forgot that Mr. Cat could see in the dark, so the illusion wasn’t as effective as we thought it would be.)

_ We’re sorry if we hurt you, Kaeloo, _ Eugly signed.  _ We thought you’d enjoy it. _

Kaeloo stared at her, nonplussed. Enjoy it? They knew she didn’t even like  _ movies _ about scary things! What about this did her friends think she would find enjoyable?

“It was supposed to be like a haunted house! Those are great places to cuddle up with someone you’re in lov-”

Quack Quack clamped Stumpy’s mouth shut with one of his wings before he could say anything more. Stumpy, having wisened up for once, decided not to finish his sentence, but he didn’t like being forced to keep quiet.

“Quack!” (Did you just lick me?!) Quack Quack cried in disgust, withdrawing his hand at once.

“So anyway, this was all Pretty’s idea,” Stumpy finished.

“Bouffeuse de carottes? This was all her?” Mr. Cat’s face darkened.

“Quack.” Quack Quack replied in the affirmative.

“I never thought I’d say this, but she  _ did _ think of something really cool! This was an awesome prank, wasn’t it?” Stumpy smiled nervously in the hopes that Kaeloo and Mr. Cat would agree. One look at Mr. Cat’s face made him shut up.

Just as Mr. Cat prepared to commit several crimes against Stumpy, a sniffle was heard. Mr. Cat turned around, horrified.

“K-Kaeloo?”

Kaeloo was sitting in fetal position, hugging her knees, tears pouring down her face. Mr. Cat cautiously kneeled down in front of her.

“I want to go home,” she sobbed. “P-Please.”

Mr. Cat decided that he’d deal with the idiots later, since there were more pressing matters at hand. Stumpy, Quack Quack, and Eugly exchanged looks of concern as he picked Kaeloo up and carried her out of the forest without so much as a second glance in their direction. Had they gone too far?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since a few of my reviewers pointed out how OOC some of the scenes were in the original version of chapter 2, I rewrote the chapter to make Kaeloo and Mr. Cat more like their canon personalities. The idea of the previous version was to show how the two of them would react under extreme stress, but I guess I made it a little too dramatic. Sorry about that! I hope you guys like the new version better.

**Author's Note:**

> French vocabulary used in this chapter:  
> Casse-noisette - Nutcracker  
> Mademoiselle Moche - Miss Ugly
> 
> Thanks to RandomnessUnlimited for beta reading!


End file.
